Dreams in the Karakoram
by shiukomumtaz
Summary: Miyuki thinks that he has his life figured out. However, on a backpacking holiday through South Asia, he meets a young man named Sawamura in the mountains of the Karakoram region. After that, his outlook changes. Mythology/jinn AU.


Miyuki had finished college and was ready to go pro. He had a degree now... He'd been drafted by a good team... He'd moved into a nice new apartment... He'd made good friends. He felt like everything in his life was in order. He decided to take a backpacking trip before settling down into his adult life. He deliberated where to go and finally decided on a trip around South Asia. The destination seemed varied geographically, culturally and he wanted to explore the food. As he prepared for his trip, he enjoyed searching all the expensive mountaineering shops in Tokyo for all of his trekking gadgets and supplies. He bought a good camera. He packed his huge new backpack. He was really looking forward to it.

After doing a tour of India up to Nepal, He headed into the mountains of the Karakoram region. He joined a trekking tour that did rafting and hiking for two weeks. When he got there, the mountains were truly beautiful. He met different travellers from America and Europe and they enjoyed hiking, exploring and chatting in front of the fire at night.

Halfway through the trip they were staying at a guest house in a small village and had a free day. Miyuki decided to explore the terrain near their quarters. He walked to the outskirts of the village. After he'd left it behind, he followed the dusty road for about an hour. As he explored, he came across some abandoned ruins and felt intrigued. He sat on the garden wall in a dilapidated courtyard to eat. He quickly checked his bag for his water purification tablets. When he looked up, there was a little black dog with golden eyes watching him.

"Aren't you cute? What's a little guy like you doing here?" He said with a smile.

He carefully approached it and gave it some of his lunch. The dog wagged its tail, ate the chapati then followed him as he explored the ruins, taking photos of the architecture which he found quite unique.

After that, Miyuki walked through the brush, following the river down the hill. He stripped to his boxers, swam in the pristine waters then decided to sunbathe under a tree. He wanted to get rid of his baseball tan and, with no one around, he figured that it would be ok. He fell asleep and woke up at twilight. A shepherd passed by, found him and started shouting in Urdu. Miyuki didn't understand a word that he said. He quickly got dressed.

The shepherd followed him back to the village, trying the whole way to urgently tell him something. Miyuki felt thoroughly confused when he followed him right back to the guest house. The shepherd shouted to the tour guide, gesticulating wildly before being ushered away.

Afterwards, the guide explained that the villager had wanted him to say prayers because he might attract attention from unwanted jinn. Apparently lying under trees in a state of undress - especially at twilight - was unsafe. Miyuki laughed at such superstitions and explained that nothing strange had happened that day.

That night, he woke up with a start feeling an intense pressure on his chest - but there was nothing there. He couldn't move his body... He felt alarmed and was stuck for what felt like hours. He also felt paranoid - like he was being watched. When he went back to sleep he dreamed of an attractive young man with golden eyes, watching over him. The man studied Miyuki curiously, stroking his face. Then he kissed him sweetly. After that, he gave Miyuki more kisses. Miyuki had never kissed a guy before so he was very disturbed when he woke up.

The next day, they continued on with the trek, walking through narrow mountainous paths. They set up camp on a glacier. Miyuki sat outside his tent with a hot coffee, enjoying the brilliant clear skies and the mountain scenery. The plan was to stay there for two nights.

Strange things started to happen in his tent. Things moved around whenever he left for a few minutes. He could never catch the person sneaking in and doing it. One time, he was reading and everything tipped over suddenly in the narrow space. And then it happened again. And again. He started to wonder if curses really did exist. Or maybe there were just slight earthquakes where they were.

That night, his dream was intense. The mysterious golden-eyed man kissed him passionately. He spoke to Miyuki in another language, gazed fondly at him then returned to desperate kissing. Miyuki felt overwhelmed and when he woke up he wondered if he was going crazy. What about the mountain air was causing such vivid dreams?

They settled in another village and took various day trips to see the rivers and snow. When Miyuki was walking in town, he saw the golden-eyed man in the market, then again by the roadside. Both times, he blinked and the man was gone. At their camp, he was talking to the tour guide when the golden-eyed man looked out at him from behind a tree. Miyuki _had _to know who he was. He pointed in his general direction but the man was gone.

"Did you see that guy? The one with the golden eyes?" He asked, frustrated.

The tour guide looked at him, terrified. "Golden eyes? You've seen a jinn!"

"I have? He's everywhere. He's even in my dreams!"

The guide immediately took him to get exorcised. Prayers were said by religious men. Holy water, incantations and invocations were used. Miyuki felt frustrated. The whole thing was utter nonsense. He couldn't understand how the guide believed in those superstitions even though he had a university education. The exorcism wasted hours that Miyuki could have spent sightseeing.

That night when he was reading by flashlight, the man from his dreams visited his tent. After he got over the initial shock, Miyuki was very curious. He studied his appearance. The young man had unruly brown hair and the same gorgeous golden eyes that he kept noticing. He looked young - maybe around Miyuki's age. He looked achingly beautiful in the shadowed intimacy of the tent but he also looked really sad.

"Do you want to get rid of me?" The man-who-might-be-a-jinn asked in awkward Japanese.

Miyuki scowled. "I don't want to do anything. Are you talking about the exorcism? Are you even a jinn? Jinn or not, I don't even know you. Coming to visit me is just... creepy."

The jinn looked very hurt. He blinked back tears and returned out into the night.

Miyuki dreamt of him again shortly afterwards when he went to sleep. In his dreams, the jinn was still sad. He stroked Miyuki's cheek sorrowfully and looked into his eyes, searching for some sign of affection from him. Miyuki felt a bit mesmerised, gave in and let the jinn kiss him. And they did it over and over. He told himself that it was just a dream... so why not allow it? The kisses felt amazing. He thought about them for the whole next day.

The tour group spent the day resting by a stream, cooking over an open fire. They walked around the hills. Miyuki saw more ruins but the guide refused to let him explore them.

"Jinn," he simply stated. Miyuki sighed in exasperation.

That night, he spoke with the young jinn when he appeared again in his dream.

"Who are you? Why are you in my dreams all the time?"

The jinn smiled - a beautiful smile - then cupped Miyuki's cheek.

"I come because you intrigue me. You have since the moment I first saw you - when you explored my ruins. But I want to hear about you," he replied in clear Japanese.

Miyuki wondered how he had learned his language. The jinn waited expectantly. Miyuki gave in and told him about his life in Japan. The jinn was very interested to hear about baseball and college. He listened avidly about Miyuki's upcoming career. Then he told Miyuki about his family and friends. They chatted about his likes and dislikes, his philosophies on life.

As the night grew later, he pulled himself closer to Miyuki and said that he had fallen in love with him. Love at first sight, he explained. Miyuki didn't believe him. They still kissed each other for the rest of the night. Miyuki enjoyed kissing like he never had before.

He spent the hike the next day asking the guide questions about jinn. He didn't reveal that he was dreaming about the jinn again, or that he had been visited. The guide seemed to have relaxed after the exorcism so he told Miyuki stories about sightings and myths. He told him that the shepherd had worried that a jinn might have fallen in love with him when resting under his tree 'naked'. Miyuki listened closely; he was intrigued by all of the superstitions that he heard.

That night the jinn spoke about their fated meeting. He said that they were from two very different places but had had their destined encounter in the ruins. He spoke of Miyuki's culture and the red threads of fate. Again, Miyuki wondered where he was learning about Japan. He said that he didn't believe in fate. The jinn – who had by now introduced himself as Sawamura - frowned anxiously.

The next day, when Miyuki set up camp, Sawamura peered into his tent at night. Miyuki didn't question his existence anymore... He simply drew him into his arms. After they had exhausted themselves exploring each other's bodies they lay down on his sleeping bag, talking. Miyuki asked his jinn lots of questions. Had he followed other humans? Did he grant people wishes? Could he fly? Sawamura laughed at some of the questions that he heard.

In the morning, as Sawamura slipped on his clothes, Miyuki watched, thinking that he was so very beautiful. Sawamura peppered him with kisses then went wherever jinn go during the day. Then, the time came when Miyuki's trekking tour ended. Sawamura begged for him to stay a bit longer but Miyuki was still sceptical about fate.

"Just meet me in my dreams again," he suggested when Sawamura felt sad.

"It's just not enough anymore," Sawamura replied.

On his last night, they had a fight. Sawamura didn't want him to leave. He stormed out. Miyuki's belongings crashed onto the ground after he left - their movements let him know that Sawamura was really quite angry.

Miyuki finished the last couple of weeks of his trip in Southeast Asia with a heavy heart. He missed his jinn desperately. He started writing him letters in his travel journal, but he had nowhere to send them. He still wrote one every night.

At the airport in Bangkok, he felt miserable as he boarded his flight back to Tokyo. He regretted his fight with Sawamura. He couldn't email, call or Skype him. He couldn't write to him. Returning home felt like a depressing sentence. But, the first morning back, he woke up to see Sawamura sleeping peacefully beside him. Overjoyed, he pulled off the covers and threw his arms around him, worried that he wasn't real. Sawamura woke up with a start.

"How did you get here?!" Miyuki asked, overwhelmed with relief.

Sawamura smiled. "I flew."

Miyuki remembered that Sawamura was a different being to him. But, jinn or human, there were more pressing matters to deal with.

"Why didn't you come back to me before?" He asked sadly.

Sawamura was apologetic. "I didn't think it was meant to be anymore. But I wanted to ask again if you believe in fate."

Miyuki thought about it. How could this just by chance? They were different races and had met in the ruins of a remote village - on the other side of the world. If this was fate, then maybe he believed in it.

"Stay with me," he whispered.

Sawamura smiled beautifully. "Yes, my human."

They reached for each other under the covers. Miyuki vowed to never let go of his jinn again.


End file.
